The Academic Minute features professors from top institutions around the country, delving into topics from the serious to the light-hearted, keeping listeners abreast of what's new and exciting in the academy.

On our April 3 program, Lone Star College President Shah Ardalan and Firmin DeBrabander of Maryland Institute College of Art join Inside Higher Ed Editor Scott Jaschik and moderator Casey Green to discuss the spread of "campus carry" gun laws in numerous states. In our other segment, Rutgers University's Mark R. Killingsworth joins the program for a conversation about a new analysis of athletics spending at the New Jersey university, one of the country's most subsidized college sports programs.

Discussions about the separation of church and state present a series of complicated issues. In today's Academic Minute, Seton Hall University's Jo-Renee Formicola analyzes this relationship in the wake of the Catholic sex-abuse scandals.